Wednesday, April 2, 2014

FTM2014 - Response to 'You are bigger than your genealogy program

to which I respond: YES. That is a reason why I share my experience with Family Tree Maker. I want to learn it I don't want to just "fill in the blanks", but want to get this program to work for me.
Like many, I started "just filling in the blanks" but I had learned as I started to "cite my sources". Didn't know why nor how, I just learned very quickly to be able to answer the "where did you get THAT information from". I am so thankful that I did.
Since the Source Templates were introduced to Family Tree Maker in FTM2010, I have spent a considerable amount of time updating my Source information into the Template Format. The Templates in Family Tree Maker are based on Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to CyberspaceI really didn't like the free formed citations that I had created. Printing a report was not a pretty thing. Using the Template feature changed that drastically. In this case, the program did the hard work, I just had to fill in the Blanks. I also have been part of two study groups, in the Dear MYRTLE Genealogy Community on Google+, where I have learned about the Genealogical Proof Standard with the book Mastering Genealogical Proof by Dr. Thomas W. Jones. Between the time I started to research and now, I have learned much and how important it is to get beyond filling in the stories.
What I am trying to do is "make" Family Tree Maker "work for me".
For example, the blog post I did earlier

Where to get Help

A Blog is not a very helpful place to troubleshoot a problem with Family Tree Maker. There is plenty of help, in the Help Menu of the program that is specific to where you are in the program; In the Help Menu, there is a link to the Knowledge Base website, called Online Help Center.